Halton Hills Housing Update - Ep.203

Welcome to this week's Halton Hills housing update. I am going to look at January’s numbers as well as what happened last week in this update, so let’s get started! In January of 2023, our average price was $1,023,000 and this past month, the average price was $955,000. We are down 6.5% year over year and I think this might be the only month where we have that big of a gap because the market feels like it is picking up. This month however, is only the third time since 2021 that our average price has dipped below a million dollars. In October of 2022 it was below a million, December 2023 was $920,000 and then this month was $955,000. So, even though we are below the million mark, which hasn’t been common over the past few years, we are seeing the average price rise and I think over the next few months we will really start to see prices rebounding. In terms of units, we are up 22% since January 2023. Last year was actually a really bad month for Halton Hills and it was very doom and gloom. We only had 37 units sell, and this month we had 45. It’s definitely a far cry from where we came from a few years ago when it was common to see like 90+ units sell in a month, but it is an improvement. Another thing to note, of the 45 units that sold, only 16 of them were over $1,000,000, and the majority of those sold within the last two weeks. So, because the majority of the houses that sold this month were under a million dollars, it’s not surprising that our average price is under it as well. On top of that, only two houses we’re over $1,500,000, so we aren't seeing many higher ticket properties sell. Until the lower pocket of the market starts to really boom, which is starting to happen, I don’t think we will see sales pick up in the higher price points, and it could be a month or two until that happens. I will say though, we did have a property last week that was listed in the 1.6 million range and it was the only house to get over asking. So, there are buyers out there and as the market starts to stabilize and buyer confidence fully comes back, we will start to see higher ticket properties sell again.

So, in Georgetown last week we had 10 sales, which is a good week. Anything with double digits is a good week here and only one of them sold over asking, which is the one I just mentioned. So, we aren't seeing a crazy amount of bidding wars but a lot of the properties that transacted last week have been on the market for quite some time. We are starting to see the older inventory sell, and some of the new inventory is also selling or is sold conditionally. All of these trends tell us that we are leaving our buyer’s market and it’s going to flip back in favour of the sellers. Georgetown only had eight new listings last week, which means inventory will be down again. Acton had one sale which is low compared to what we were seeing in January, and they also had five new listings. Nothing happened in Glen Williams or Limehouse, and the rural market had one sale and three new listings. So, last week we had 11 properties in the terminated, expired, and suspended categories. Of the 11, one came back at a reduced price, one came back at the same price, and nine left the market. So, not only is inventory going down because new listings aren't keeping up with sales, but also because we are still seeing a ton of properties coming off the market. This has been a trend since October but I do think it will start to slow down. 

We had 98 active listings in Halton Hills last week and this week we are down to 94. We haven’t seen this few listings since April of 2022, and that was kind of near the peak of chaos, although the peak was more February and March of 2022. Ninety four listings is very low for Halton Hills, especially when we were sitting around 230 in October. In Georgetown, we are down from 51 active listings to 44, and we haven’t seen this number since March of 2022. In October, Georgetown had 140 listings, so we have dropped almost 100 listings in a few months. We’re starting to see bidding wars, and properties selling quickly. It’s just an indicator that we will likely have a busy few months ahead. So, looking at our price points, under $800,000 is down from 12 to 11 active listings. Eight hundred thousand to a million is down from nine to six active listings, and this is the price point that has been moving the most. Six listings is very low and this price point being that low will lead to prices increasing. One to 1.5 million is down from 19 to 18 active listings, and 1.5 million plus is down from 11 to nine. That price point isn’t moving very much, but there also isn’t a ton available. We have seen upwards of 30 listings here before. Another thing to note, I took a look at the inventory levels of March 2022, and under $800,000 only had three listings. You literally could not get a house under $800,000, but $800,000 to a million had 11 active listings, which is more than we have now. So, I think only having six listings will start to push the market upward. All the semi-detached properties that were $800,000 - $850,000 will shift to $900,000, and then Delrex bungalows will start pushing a million dollars again. 

In Acton this week, they are up from 16 to 18 active listings, which isn’t super high but still good for Acton. Glen Williams remained the same this week at four and you have to have $2,100,000 plus to live in the Glen right now, so those properties won’t be moving very rapidly right now. Limehouse remained the same at zero and the rural market is up from 27 to 28 active listings. In 2022, the rural market only had 12 listings, so we are still sitting very high here. As always though, when Georgetown’s inventory starts to dip, that’s when we start to feel things pick up in the rural market, so that’ll be another trend to watch for. 

I think this week was a really interesting update. I’m not surprised to see average pricing below a million dollars, and it doesn’t alarm me, given the fact that the majority of properties selling right now are under a million dollars. If we continue to see strong sales throughout February, it will start to pull our average price back up. I think that the ship has sailed on the “buyer’s market” but there have been a handful of properties in Georgetown that have been there for a while now. The opportunity to get a good price feels almost completely gone, as buyer demand and confidence has bounced back and our inventory will not be able to keep up with the rising demand we are seeing. So, if you terminated your property last year and planned on waiting for the spring to re-enter, I would argue that February and March are going to be very strong months and you should consider doing it sooner. As a buyer, I would get your ducks in a row to be participating in the market right now before it kind of booms. So, I will be back next Tuesday, have a great week!